
49
Tu e s d a y
November 2
A Foreigner in Israel
Throughout this chapter Uriah is referred to as Uriah the Hittite.
So who were the Hittites? The Hittites of Palestine were an ethnic
group with an uncertain relationship to Neo-Hittite states to the north.
In the Old Testament world, culture, nationality, race, and religion
were very much interconnected. For this reason, the Old Testament
strongly criticizes and prohibits intermarriage between Israel and the
surrounding nations. The prohibition given in Deuteronomy 7:3 is
repeated at each major revival in Israel. A key to understanding the
prohibitions against intermarriage is religion. The Old Testament is full
of examples of foreigners who accept the God of Israel, and the Bible
regards their assimilation to Israel positively. In the case of Uriah, the
assimilation is in the form of marriage, as well as religion.
What
are some examples of foreigners who were assimilated into
Israel? Josh. 6:25, Ruth 1:1–16, Esther 8:17, Isa. 56:3–7.
Ruth, the Moabitess, left her land, people, and religion and went with
her mother-in-law back to Israel. Her famous words underline the impor-
tant concept of adopting not only another people but also another God:
“ ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go
I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people
and your God my God’ ” (Ruth 1:16, NIV). The assimilation includes not
only exemplary daughters-in-law but also lying prostitutes. Remember
Rahab, the prostitute who rescued the two spies? Here was someone who
responded very positively to the little light she had and chose to believe
that the God of Israel was powerful and faithful. Sometime after the fall
of Jericho, Rahab marries Salmon and, together with Ruth, is included in
the genealogy of Christ (Josh. 6:25, Matt. 1:5).
Uriah was not the only Hittite to have served David. First Samuel
26:6 mentions Ahimelech the Hittite. However, Uriah became one of
David’s elite warriors (1 Chron. 11:41). Interestingly, if Eliam the father
of Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:3) was the same Eliam who was the son of
Ahithophel the Gilonite (2 Sam. 23:34), then Uriah had indeed married
into a very influential family. His father-in-law also would have been an
elite warrior and son of David’s esteemed counselor. This could explain
the proximity of Uriah’s house to the palace, and it may provide a reason
for Ahithophel’s later defection to Absalom’s conspiracy. It may well be
that he held a grudge against David for the treatment of his granddaughter
Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah.
Read Ephesians 2:19. How can Ruth’s, Rahab’s, and Uriah’s
assimilation into Israel help us to establish our personal spiri-
tual pedigree? How does this passage help us understand that
no matter our background, through Christ we can be accepted
into “the household of God”?